Damaged, destroyed, lost and stolen documents

FOI request reference: F0041055
Publication date: February 2015

Request

1. Under the freedom of information act, I request the number of items within the archives which have been damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen in 2014, 2013 and 2012. If it is easier to provide the information over the last two financial years (including this one which is yet to finish), please do so.

2. Please provide the amount of money the Archives have spent as a result of damaged, lost or stolen items in 2014. Please include costs of sourcing replacements, restoration, investigations into lost items and any other cost associated with these conditions of damage, loss of theft.

3. If the cost limit has not yet been exceeded please name and list all items damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen in 2014. Please include date reported (damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen), a brief description of how it came into that condition and the cost in attempting to replace or repair the item.

Outcome

Partially successful

Response

Copies of the document mentioned in this response are available on request

1. The number of items within the archives which have been damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen in 2014, 2013 and 2012

In the period 2012-2014, our records show:

• There were no records destroyed or stolen.
• 328 documents reported as missing. We have an on-going program dedicated to locating missing records and through this we are able to locate many records listed as missing. For example in cases where they have been misfiled during the normal course of use. Our holdings equate to more than 11 million records at our Kew site and we produce more than 600,000 records per annum.
• In this period there has been one reported incident of damage to a record.

2. Please provide the amount of money the Archives have spent as a result of damaged, lost or stolen items in 2014 (including costs of replacements, restoration and investigations)

There are no additional costs spent as a result of damaged, lost or stolen items.

We have an on-going programme of document restoration. The repair and restoration work of the Collection Care department is one of the core functions so there is no additional cost involved. Further details on how much of our budget is spent on preservation and conservation can be located in our annual report:http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/annual-report-13-14.pdf

Our records are unique and original and we cannot acquire replacements.

3. Please name and list all items damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen in 2014.

Please see the attached spread sheet listing 148 documents that were reported as missing during 2014. This list contains the document reference and the date it was listed as missing on Discovery. Within this group of records will be examples of where records have been misfiled during the normal course of use.